March 3, 2007

Box Score

WASHINGTON - Damian Hollis led five George Washington players in double figures with 18 points to give the Colonials a hard-fought 88-80 win over Duquesne in the regular season finale for both schools.

Hollis added 12 rebounds and Rob Diggs had 17 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocks for the Colonials. Duquesne got double-double performances from both Robert Mitchell (28-11) and Kieron Achara (22-12) in the loss.

With the win, George Washington (20-8, 11-5) clinched a third-place finish and bye in the first round of the March 7-10 2007 Atlantic 10 Championship at Atlantic City, N.J. Duquesne (10-18, 6-10), picked in the preseason to finish 13th in the A-10, ended up 10th.

Duquesne trailed by one with 10:12 to go before George Washington went on a 14-4 run to take a 72-61 lead on a Regis Koundjia dunk with 6:05 left. GW upped the lead to 13 two minutes later before Mitchell - who scored 20 in the second half - and Achara combined to score the Dukes' next 15 points to pull DU to within five at 85-80 with 20 seconds left.

The Colonials hit 3-of-4 free throws in the closing seconds for the final margin.

Duquesne, which went 8-of-33 from the 3-point arc for the game, hit just 4-of-20 3-point attempts in the second half. Both teams had 30 field goals. GW outscored Duquesne 21-12 from the foul line.

"I don't know that we could have played any harder," said Duquesne head coach Ron Everhart. "We rebounded the ball as well as we have all year and we got great production from our front line. We missed a lot of open jump shots in the second half. We had to make a couple of those especially since that was what their defense was giving us. You have to give them credit, every time there was a big play to be made, they made it."

Achara added a career-high 5 steals and 3 blocks for the Dukes. Gary Tucker scored 11 and Aaron Jackson added 6 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists for the Dukes.

Mitchell, who was coming off an 0-of-11, 1-point performance versus Akron on Monday, went 9-of-18 from the field in posting the fifth-highest point total ever by a Duquesne freshman.

There were five ties and three lead changes in a first half that ended with George Washington holding a 40-36 lead.

DU rallied to take a 44-42 lead two minutes into the second half before Carl Elliott answered with a 3-pointer at the 17:40 mark to give the Colonials a lead they would never relinquish.

"The good thing is we now get to go to the tournament and play on a neutral floor," said Everhart. "I know our guys are looking forward to it."

Duquesne will face seventh-seeded Saint Louis (18-12, 8-8) in the Atlantic 10 Championship opening round on Wednesday, March 7 at 6:30 p.m. (EST).